Energy Dept.'s Response to Its Depiction on 'Stranger Things' Shows It's Not Evil at All

Emails reveal several humorous internal reactions from the staff of the agency as the DOE tweets that it wants justice for Barb.

October 7, 2016

AceShowbiz -

The Department of Energy is featured prominently on "Stranger Things", but often not in a good light. The DOE is depicted as a sinister government agency conducting arcane research into parallel universes, but it's not all accurate.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, Lachlan Markay, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, requested DOE's emails that included internal talks of the Netflix series. The emails reveal some playful and humorous reactions from the staff.

"We have to have a conversation about the sinister (yet awesome) portrayal of the DOE," one staffer wrote. Another DOE employee noted that "we actually do make weapons" and admitted that "there is some really eyebrow-raising stuff in the history of the atomic energy commission." Another employee demanded, "DO NOT SPOIL THIS FOR ME. I was going to watch it this week."

A blog post published on the DOE website in August said that "the show's portrayal of the Energy Department was a little less than accurate." Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist, revealed, "It's not true that 'the Energy Department doesn't explore parallel universes. We support theoretical physicists/cosmologists through the Office of Science High Energy Physics program, some of whom almost certainly are doing a fair amount of research on parallel universes."

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When Markay tweeted a picture of the stack of documents he received from the DOE's public affairs office in response to his request, the DOE commented, "No matter what you write, it won't bring Barb back. #JusticeForBarb." Barb is a character portrayed by Shannon Purser whose death is virtually ignored by other characters on the show.